Cu. ft. is a bit of a red herring. WHat are they measuring ? Total interior space, air volume, shelf space, door space, what if the racks are super heavy duty and have thick spill proof lips on them that effectively lessens the floor space you can place a can or bottle or dish on ? This is not really a product you can arm chair quarterback with your spreadsheet. You gotta go see one in the flesh to determine if it will meet your needs. Basically, $6k is not going to get you a built in fridge of 42"-48" width in either stainless or a paneled version unless you you find a close out, scratch/dent ect... The one exception seems to be a GE Profile model or two, but you don't want that , and are wise not to. Those electroluxs are about $4k but ARE NOT built ins. They are a lot deeper than 24" ! May not be problem , but at 60"+ wide they take up a lot of kitchen floorplan. You can read here and elsewhere about their reliability.

I've had a KA for a little over three years and I've been happy with it so far. I had nothing any more upscale than a basic Whirlpool fridge prior to this - Whirlpool brands have served me well - so this was more than adequate for me. Some good friends needed several repairs on their relatively new SZ fridge and went out of their way to recommend I not get one. Obviously lots of people are delighted with SZ but since people I actually know were not, that did influence my decision. I did want a built in with cabinet panels and KA was outrageously expensive enough - no way I was going to pay thousands more than that. For that I would expect flawless performance for at least 15 years and I just don't think they make appliances that way any more. What might have been great quality 20-30 years ago I really don't think is the same these days - SZ or otherwise.

I'm confused, do you think the stink lingers because it's built in or do you think it would have happened with any microwave, but you'd just get rid of it if it was a cheapo on the counter? I've only had ones that sat on the counter and ones that were built in over the range with the fan for the range. Hated the location of both because I don't like appliances on the counter and want a hood rather than over range micro. However I never noticed one being more stinky that the other and we use ours a lot, almost daily for heating water, steaming veggies and reheating. I've made popcorn and it lingers and bacon which is even worse (banned hubby from that), but it eventually wet away without any major clean up. I've scorched popcorn, but never torched anything so I'm just trying to figure out is the problem due to the degree of torching or the style of micro? I planned to find a spot for a built in in my remodel, but if it's something about the style that makes the stink linger I wouldn't want that. Please enlighten me! Thanks.

We have a large, custom home with an office with a full wall of bookshelves (complete with a rolling ladder) and on the other side a desk with matching filing cabinets. We didn’t build them or have them built, it was a previous owner who had it done. Our home is on the market right now... it’s a nice selling point, and prospective buyers ooh and aah over it... but it doesn’t actually add monetary value to our home. The things that we HAVE done... gut job remodels of our kitchen and almost all of our 4.5 bathrooms (all but the jack and Jill bathroom)... those are the things that made our realtor say we should be able to get away with a price in the upper range of our comps... also we have a beautifully landscaped yard on a quiet cul-de-sac in a desirable neighborhood. With all of that said, we have LOVED having those bookshelves. Ours are completely full of books (and some decorations, but mostly hardcover books) and we plan to build a similar set-up in our next home because we’ve enjoyed it so much. So, my advice, do it if it makes sense for you and how you’ll use the home and when you go to eventually sell it, it can be something nice that sets you apart from your comps but it won’t actually add $$$ to the price. Make your kitchen and bathrooms function well and look appropriate to the style of your architecture, and spend some money and effort on your landscaping from the beginning to get closer to mature when you’re ready to move.